


Infinity, Interrupted

by AILakewoodPublications



Series: StarBorn Saga [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:33:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24556969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AILakewoodPublications/pseuds/AILakewoodPublications
Series: StarBorn Saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774936





	Infinity, Interrupted

Aoni glanced up at me from his seat on the ground, then down at the basket in my hand. “They had some?”  
I nodded. “Yes, they had some.”  
The ghost of a smile graced his lips, and his hands paused in their work. Seated on the ground with an anvil and a metal sword he was hammering out, Aoni often crafted swords to sell, or keep, depending on his mood. The one he worked on today would be a keeper, when he was finished with it. “Good, good. Now, sit, and I’ll show you how to work it.”  
Gently setting the basket on the ground, I sat down, watching his hands resume his work.   
He moved deftly, easily, gently touching the sword. “Let me see it,” he said softly.  
I moved the blanket out of the way, revealing the small, clear vial of purple liquid. It was maybe the size of my pinkie finger, no larger than that. The purple liquid made a slight hissing noise as I swished it. “Here.”  
He looked up then to study the vial I held. His lips pursed together, jutting outward, eyes narrowing slightly. It was his thoughtful look. “Yes, that will be plenty. Thank you, Seleh. What do I owe you for it?”  
I smiled brightly. “Nothing, Master! Consider it a gift.”   
A slight nod, and he returned to caressing the long, curved blade with his roughened hands. If I did that, I would surely cut myself. His hands were rough and calloused, and he was able to easily slide his fingers down the blade. “It’s adequate,” he said softly, then reached for the purple vial. “Do you know what this is?” His voice was soft, breathy, as though he was attempting to not be overheard.   
I shook my head. “No, not really, Master Aoni.”  
“It’s poison. Dragon’s Breath poison.”  
My eyes widened. “Wha-? Why would you . . . what would you use it for?”  
He shook the vial, and I heard it hissing again. “What you do is add a tiny drop to the very tip of a sword, and that sword becomes poisoned.”  
“How long does it last?”  
“It lasts until you use a special move that one day, I will teach you.” He cupped the hilt of the sword in his hands, and popped off the top of the hilt, revealing the hollowness inside. “Put this in the sword,” he slid the vial into the hollow hilt, “and it’s always there for your use.” He looked at me, his purple and blue eyes piercing right through me. “And some day, Selehevi, I will teach you to use this sword.” He replaced the top, placed his palm over it, and closed his eyes. “Now, Seleh,” his hand emitted a light blue glow, “I will seal it with my power, but one day, when I bequeath this sword to you, I will show you how to seal it with yours.”   
The hilt glowed brightly at first when he took his hand away, but it dulled slowly. “You’re . . . gonna teach me to use that?”  
He nodded. “Yes. But not until you are ready. It is a sword well beyond your experience, but some day, you will inherit this.” He stood. “Did they have the other thing I sent you for?”  
I nodded, and made a face. “Yes, I bought the Feirberry pastries.”  
This time the smile was not a ghost, but a full blown grin. He laughed, and I flinched at the memory I knew he was laughing at. “Ah, yes, you have still not developed the Fieroctian tastebuds. It is okay. At least you can handle spice, for a Waestrian.”  
I frowned. “Spicy is fine, but pure fire is not.”  
He held his hand down toward me, pulling me up to my feet. “Go, student, grab your gear. Let’s have a nice sparring session before you leave for the day. It would be a good idea to see how far you’ve come, wouldn’t it?”  
A huge smile spread across my face and I ran to grab my gear from Aoni’s two-roomed hut. The hut was small, and made up of only two rooms. One room was the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom, while the second was the bathroom. The walls and floors were both the red wood that grew in the forest, where Aoni’s hut lay. Around the hut, Aoni cut the red-leafed trees with reddish-orange bark in order to make a training ground, a working area, and his hut. The wood of his hut was bare.   
Beside the door to the bathroom was where his bed lay. It was just a small bed pad, a thin blanket, and no pillow. Master Aoni did not believe in comforts. On the far wall, on the other side of the bed and the bathroom, lay supplies. Weapons, packs, and battle gear. Knowing that he would want to test my weapon use more than anything, I grabbed the thigh sheaths, strapping them on, quickly but carefully placing the eight-inch curved daggers in them. I strapped on my wrist guards, too, but nothing else before running back outside. “I’m ready!”  
By the time I got outside, the sword had disappeared to wherever Aoni stored his stash of elite weapons, and Aoni was wearing some of his battle gear. He still wore the same dark brown pants and beige shirt, but he’d pulled on hardened battle boots that went up above his knees. The boots were hardest at his knees, his toes, and his heels. He also had put on wrist guards, thigh sheaths, his back sheath, wrist sheaths, and strapped more daggers into his boots. He’d pulled his red hair back into a short ponytail. His one blue eye and one purple eye studied me as I stood there, staring at him. “Are you ready?”  
I nodded. “O-oh! Yea!” I ran toward him. “Yes, I’m ready, Master Aoni!”  
He lowered himself into his fighting stance. “Okay, Selehevi. Let’s see what you’ve learned.”   
I followed his example, lowering my body into my fighting stance. “What are the rules today, Master?”   
“Only weapons. No powers. No wings. No fists. Weapons.”  
I nodded. “Okay. Alright, I’m ready.”   
He stood there, and I got a moment to study his stance. His legs were hip-width apart, no further than that, left leg forward, right leg back. One arm was held in front of him, with a dagger grasped loosely, but firmly in his hand. The other arm was almost straight down his side, bent just slightly, with the matching dagger grasped in his hand.   
My own fighting stance was wider, as I wasn’t as sure of myself as he was, and I wanted to be sure that I could block faster. Like him, my legs were hip-width apart, one leg forward, one back. It was also my left leg the was forward. One arm was held in front of me, and I had my curved dagger in both of my hands. My right arm was closer to my torso, about shoulder-high, ready to defend.   
Seconds ticked by, and I watched him closely. He looked almost relaxed, but I knew better. His body would be tense and ready to move at the slightly movement from me. The way he was leaning slightly to the right told me if I attacked, he would leap to the right. Of course, the way he held his left hand told me that if I were to lunge at him and if he were to escape to the right, he would be ready to strike before I could move away.   
He watched me as intensely as I watched him, and he shifted his weight slightly so that he was no longer leaning to the right.  
As soon as he began to shift his weight, I launched forward, bringing back my left hand, ready to strike.   
He ducked, and his left hand shot out at me, nearly striking me across my thigh, if I hadn’t been just a tad too fast. He shot to his feet and advanced, blade flashing through the air.  
I brought my dagger up just in time to block his with my right, and struck out with my left.   
His right dagger met mine, and he kicked out at my shin.   
I threw myself backward before his kick connected, and as I did so, I dropped my left dagger, and pulled a throwing knife out of Aoni’s wrist sheath before he could stop me.  
Surprise registered on his face for half a second before he dodged to the right to avoid the knife I’d stolen from him as I threw it.   
Ducking down to grab the dagger I’d dropped whose blade stuck into the ground, I quickly went after him, wiping the mud off of the blade on my pant leg.   
As I advanced on him, his blade flashed out and, before I could move again, sliced right across my abdomen.   
“Dammit,” I hissed, jumping backward while slicing across his upper thigh right before.   
He made no sound, didn’t acknowledge the growing blood spot on his thigh. Instead, he came toward me, blade held at the ready.  
I blocked his left dagger, only to be nearly struck with his right. If not for my wrist guard that I used at the very last second, he would have hit me. The instant his dagger hit my wrist guard, I kneed upward, hitting him in the hip, almost groin, and kicked out at his chest.   
He dropped to his side before I could hit him, kicking up as he did.   
I caught his foot in both hands, then brought my left elbow down on his knee full force–stopping just before I hit to smile at him. “Clumsy, Master! I could’ve had you here!”  
He smiled, and looked down at his right hand, which firmly gripped a throwing knife. “I would have struck you with this knife before you could’ve finished that move.” He wiggled the knife between his fingers.  
I blinked. “H-how?”  
“You have to always be aware of your opponent’s hands.” Once I released his leg, he stood. “But you’re getting pretty good at it, Selehevi.”  
I nodded, smiling. “I know! I did pretty good this time, didn’t I?”   
“Here,” he reached forward, touching my abdomen where he’d sliced through my shirt and into my skin. His fingers grew warm, and a blue glow came from them, feeding into my skin.   
The feeling of my skin stitching together was an odd feeling, and I doubted I’d ever get used to it, but the pain of it faded quickly. “Thank you.”  
“Maritia probably would not have been happy about you having an injury.” He slid his weapons back into their sheaths, retrieving the throwing knife I’d stolen to do so.   
“We’re done?” I asked, straightening my stance. “Aw.”  
“Maritia is starting to call for you,” he said, pointing to the sky. Up above, there was blue smoke coming from the castle we now lived at. “You shouldn’t keep her waiting. She’ll come looking.”  
I nodded, taking the sheaths off to hand to him. “Yes, I should get back. Thank you for healing me. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Maritia frowned at me. She was famous for that frown. Not because it was a good, or particularly scary frown. Quite the opposite, actually. She was a particularly bad frowner. She would try to look scary, or disapproving, but in the end, she always looked more . . . confused, like she was forcing the frown when she really just wanted to smile.  
Even when I knew she was mad, it was hard to see it in her face or in her eyes, because she just always looked innocent.  
She was an older woman, a little over a hundred years old, and had been with the Lekhryxis family for all, or most, of her life. It was hard to believe that such an innocent, loving, sweet woman had been with that family for so long.   
No, maybe not, because Luria Lekhryxis. . . . She’d been a sweet, loving woman, who never seemed to get angry. Her husband, Tyovin, was the opposite. I’d never met someone who so terrified me, whose eyes alone could evoke a terror in me. In the year I’d lived with them, I’d never seen him smile or laugh or look anything but disapproving. From the pictures I’ve seen of Zairyn’s family, and judging by his uncle, and even his aunt, Tyovin was how most of that family acted. Luria was the exception, but I suppose that was because she grew up on a whole separate planet, unlike Renai Lekhryxis, who was from one of the 13 High Families of Feiroct.   
Most people from this planet seemed so much more solemn, so much more serious than my own planet.  
Maritia was the exception. I often wondered, but I’d never asked, if she, too, had been born on another planet. But that made no sense, because from what I knew of her, she’d been with the Lekhryxis family all her life.  
I wasn’t sure about that, but I was sure that right now, Maritia was frowning at me. Or, at least, doing her best to frown. I was even sure why she was frowning.   
“Do I really have to go?”  
She frowned harder. It didn’t help her look any more serious. “Selehevi Waenshoare.” Even her chastising was too gentle.   
I pursed my lips together, pushing them outward at the same time. “I don’t see why I have to go.”  
“Because you are being summoned.”  
“Okay, but, and hear me out,” I brought my hands up, palms toward her, “what if I don’t go? What’s the worst they’re gonna do?”  
“Send him out to find you.”  
That made my stomach drop to my toes. Zairyn. Has it really been five years? I swallowed the knot in my throat. “He wouldn’t come. He’d know better. Besides,” I forced a shaky smile, “he probably doesn’t want to see me any more than I want to see him.”  
“Lady Selehevi,” she pouted, “how about we go for me? It’s been so very long since I’ve been home.”  
Oh, no. No, no, no. “Don’t-!”  
She jutted her lower lip out, arching the inner halves of her brows upward. “I so miss my home. I haven’t even seen my family.”  
Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit! I growled, under my breath. “Okay, okay. I’ll go.” I turned away from her, looking out toward the forest. Before Maritia had come outside to tell me it was time to return to the palace, I was sitting in the courtyard. Five years ago, Evion made the decision to send me and Maritia out of the palace, to live in the castle in a smaller village several hours carriage ride away. Five years ago, before everything changed, there used to be a High Family that lived in this castle.  
Now it was just me, just Maritia, and a handful of servants that lived in the castle before we moved in. Today, I was alone, sitting in the courtyard, staring at the flowers and the bushes and the little pond. In a few weeks, I would be thirteen years old. Just a few weeks. It would also be the sixth anniversary of when I left my planet.  
I was trying hard not to think about that.  
The flowers were especially bright today, and the smell that came off of them was thick, sweet, and a little hot. They gave off heat like fire almost, and you could smell it on them. Everything on this planet gave off heat. It was always hot. There were two seasons on this planet. Hot, and hotter. In between those seasons, for two lunar cycles, there was a relief from the hot, but it wasn’t much cooler.   
Everything on this planet seemed more intense, stronger. My planet had a mild climate, mild food, mild people. This planet, it was so much more. The food was hot, the drinks were hot, even juice tasted like fire. It was like the planet itself was made of fire.  
“So,” Maritia dropped down to sit by me, smoothing out her plain black servant’s gown, “you, uh, you realize. . . .” She paused, took a breath. “There are very few reasons why they would summon you to the palace.”  
I nodded, looking down at the lush, thick, teal grass. “I know.”  
“You’re going to be thirteen soon.”   
“I know,” I said again, with less emotion.   
“And the contract is still active.”  
“Get to the point, Maritia.” I said this, even though I knew what her point was.  
“The bonding ceremony.”  
Thirteen. Thirteen was a sacred number on this planet, to these people. On most High Planets, there was a bonding ritual that was performed between two betrothed people. On my planet, usually the bonding ritual was performed at sixteen. Here, it was performed at 13, because that was their sacred number.   
Maritia nodded. “Yes. The bonding ritual is coming very soon. They’re most likely summoning you there for that.”  
Great. I stood. “I have to do something first, but then we can go.”  
She nodded, standing up, rubbing her hands on her thighs. “You do that. It’ll give me time to pack your packs and pick out an appropriate outfit.” She emphasized the word while eyeing me up and down critically. “Since I’m sure your guardians would prefer for you to be dressed appropriately.”  
“I’ll tell Fuhi to prepare the carriage on my way out.” The huge, double doors were still open, Maritia must’ve left them so when she’d come outside. They were about teen feet high, and made of clear, unbreakable material with gold veins throughout it, making little diamonds in the doors. They opened outward, toward the courtyard, and I didn’t bother closing them as I knew Maritia would be coming in as well, probably close behind me. The parlor was a big, dark room with grey stone walls and dark blue carpeting. The carpet was plush and comfy and very soft, and it felt nice beneath my bare feet.   
There were chairs and love seats strewn about here and there in the parlor, spaced evenly apart, mostly next to big bookcases filled with old, yellowing books that, though expertly dusted, were never touched outside of that. There were windows spaced evenly apart on one wall, windows from ceiling to floor, which overlooked the courtyard. Despite those windows, this room was still dark, and a litlte scary. The walls were bare, showing just the stones, the only thing that graced those walls being candle sconces every twenty feet. They did not offer much light.   
Each wall had a door on it. The door on the opposite side of the courtyard doors was also a double set of doors, from floor to ceiling, large, black, stone doors with cold black crystal doorknobs. The other two doors, also exactly across from each other, were much smaller, stone doors pointed at the tops.   
I went to the large double doors. It opened before I got this, as was the door servant’s job. His entire job was to stand there and wait to open the doors for me, or visitors. There was one servant on each side of the door, ready to open for whoever they needed to open it for. Other servants opened the doors on their own.  
It made me feel uncomfortable to have servants stand at the doors and wait to open them for me. At home, our doors had been updated long ago to open for everyone automatically. Even in the palace here, all the doors opened on their own. This castle, however, had been built before automated doors and automated servants, so it mostly relied on flesh and blood servants to do everything to keep it running.   
I tried to help out when I could, and gave them precious gemstones where I could so they could buy better food or clothes. This was not a usual practice in most castles here. Servants were not usually paid well. Papa always paid ours well, but not every royal family did.   
From what I remembered, Zairyn’s parents paid their servants well, and required for other castle servants to be paid well, but once Nulcar and Renai took over, they changed things. The common people they were supposed to rule over weren’t happy about most of those changes, either.   
Papa wouldn’t have been happy about it, either.  
With the door opened, I was able to see into the grand entry hall before I got there. It was also a rather large room, with a grand staircase in the middle of the room. It was several feet wide, and, like many things in this castle, made of the same, dark grey stone. This stone was polished until it was smooth and beautiful, shiny almost, but it was the same stone that the floors and walls were all built from.   
This was an ancient castle, one that had not been updated in a long time. It probably hadn’t been updated since it was built. There were many rooms, and it had a more traditional layout, with the courtyard in the middle, surrounded by the rest of the castle, like a wall. But in its age, it had a certain beauty one could not find in newer castles.  
At least, in my opinion.   
The grand entrance hall’s ceiling was twice as high as every other room in the castle, with the exception of the ballroom. Because of that, the front double doors was the highest. They went nearly to the ceiling, which made the doors almost twice as large at the doors in the rest of the cattle. It was also twice as wide. Unlike the other doors in the castle, it was made out of pure polished black crystal. The doorknobs were blood rubies.   
The grand entrance hall was the only room in the castle that had polished black stone floors, and red walls. It gave the room a very gloomy, downright scary look. Especially at night. The rest of the castle was mostly just grey stone. Not like that was any less gloomy, honestly. At least this room was mostly well-lit. Aside from the ballroom, it had the best lighting in the castle.   
Out the front doors, down tall, black steps, was the road that led to the nearby village. If I followed this road, I would end up in the village, right where the builders’ part lay. Beyond that would be the marketplace, and beyond that would be the Elite Families that lived in the village. Six of which contracted their daughters out to be my Awaiting Attendants. Usually, Awaiting Attendants would be made up of different genders. However, because of Nulcar’s decisions changing things, only people who shared your gender could Await you. Boys Awaited boys, girls Awaited girls, people who fell between those two genders Awaited people who fell between those two genders.   
Awaiting Attendants were people who were assigned to be your servant-friends. They served you, but also served as friends. Personally, I thought it was a rather strange thing to do, hire people to be your friends and your servants? It just seemed strange.  
On our way to the palace, we would have to stop off there to gather my Awaiting Attendants, and I was sure that was where Maritia assumed I would go.   
If I were to turn the other way and go to the west, I would find Aoni’s cabin a few miles hike down through the forest, where the grass and the trees became red.   
I started to go toward Aoni’s cabin, and had just turned toward it, when I heard a whistle.   
“Lady Selehevi, where are you going?!”   
Oh, no. Turning back toward the castle, I saw Amorian standing just past the door of the castle, on the very top of the stairs. “Oh. Uh. Hi, Amorian!”   
Amorian was one of my six Awaiting Attendants. She came from one of the High Families of this planet. She stood on the edge of the first step, staring down at me with a perplexed look. Her light blond hair was styled expertly, curling in gentle waves around her face. She was pale, eyes blue with flecks of pink. She was a very pretty girl, and she knew it. She wore a cream-colored gown with a pale yellow waist and , and a bustle on the back. It looked complex. “You have to get dressed, don’t you know that?! You can’t go to the palace looking like that!”  
Right. Because I was going to the palace, my Awaiting Attendants had to come with me. Right. Right. Oh, kill me.   
Shoulders slumping forward, I glanced toward Aoni’s home, but made my way back into the palace. “Alright, alright. I’ll . . . go get dressed.”


End file.
